Feb 25, East Summit Snoq. Mt.

Rounded up a new ski partner, Collin, for a little spring skiing on Snoqualmie Mt. 3 hours from Sahalie to the East summit. Car to car in 4 hours. Corn was very nice!

What Avalanche path??

Collin Carves Corn

Feb 22, Red Mountain, Elev. 5,890

Sunshine! Sunshine! Seems like spring. Greg and I cruised up to the top of Red in just under 3 hours, then had a quick ski home. Snow on top was firm, just right in the middle, and too soft at the bottom. The views were outstanding.

Feb 4, Kendall Area

Did a quick trip up to the Kendall Peak basin with Don H. Snow was excellent in the open. In the trees, it had been tracked out pretty hard over the weekend. More snow forecasted for tonight!

Feb. 3, Mount Catherine, elev. 5,052

Forced back to the trees by high avalanche danger, Seth, Greg, and I met up at the house, had a cup of coffee, walked over to Hyak and started the skin up Hyak and over to Mt. Catherine. As we hit the Catherine ascent, we were happy to see a fresh trail leading the way. Whew, that saved a lot of trail breaking. Our timing was perfect, we didn't catch the lead group until right before the summit! We even got first tracks back down. We found a good, steep line through the cliffs then hopped on our skin track for two more runs. The skiing was great, and we enjoyed some new ski lines. Mount Catherine did not dissappoint.

Jan 22, Mount Roosevelt - Sunny day!

7 degrees outside, brrrr. Checking the telemetry for Alpental, 18 degrees at the top of Armstrong quad. That's a little warmer, slight inversion, good thing the sun is shining! Did Roosevelt on the weekend and could barely see where we were going. With the sun shining, could not resist a repeat to check out the views. Picked up Frank at 10, finished at 4:30, a 6 hour tour. Used the chair lift to access source lake, and get in a few extra turns. Frank and I were a little confused. Judging by the snow quality we must be in Utah! The snow quality was excellent on all aspects. Another great day in the mountains.

Jan. 19, Mount Roosevelt - elev. 5,835 feet

Snow and more snow. Color of the day was gray. We had an idea where Mount Roosevelt was, go over snow lake divide, ski to the end of the lake, then go uphill with a curve to the right. Since we couldn't really see the top, we started to second guess ourselves about the proper route of travel. Luckily we stayed on track, and made it to the top. The views were still pretty interesting, with a sheer drop off the summit. Will have to do this route again when we can actually see. Skiing, however was excellent, and we all enjoyed good turns back down to Snow Lake.

Jan 16, The Slot / Phantom Slide, Snoqualmie Mt.

Avalanche danger is finally getting better, so Greg and I headed up Snoqualmie Mt. from the Alpental maintenance parking lot. Looked like two skiers had beaten us out that morning, so we followed their skin track up Snoqualmie Mt. Near the top, Greg said, "let's check out the slot." I think the slot has some kind of magnetic pull on Greg, because he does not seem to be able to resist the pull of The Slot. I looked in and it looked hard and blown out. I made Greg continue up to the summit where we enjoyed great views and looked over the backside at the crooked couloir. It, also, looked wind blown and hard. Giving in to the magnetism of the slot we skied back to it's entrance and headed in. Despite high hopes of powder lurking out of view, it was pretty much hardpack. After skiing the slot, we climbed back over to the West side and had a good ski down the Phantom slide path. 5,000 feet of climbing, I got my exercise for the day.

Jan. 6, Kendall Again

Suckers for good skiing we headed back up to Kendall peaks basin. No dissappointments! Now, where do we go next week? Greg's camera was on fire. Here are a couple of his pictures:

Dec. 28, Kendall Revisited

Avalanche danger rated considerable below 7,000 feet. Looks like a good reason to stay with a safer destination. Kendall again! It was a Saturday and we had a helluva group; Greg, Frank, Mike O, Kari, Seth, Holly, and Eric. Toured up Kendall knob then cruised the ridgeline and dropped the North side of the ridge back into Kendall Peaks basin. The same area as the last post. This time after Eric dug a pit and deemed the snowpack safe, we opted for the open slopes and had some great turns. Excellent group of skiers and a great day to be out in the mountains.

Dec. 26, Kendall Peak Region

The snow has been falling! Today was probably the best powder I have ever had touring! 20-30" of fluffy powder over a small rain crust, that saved us from sinking even deeper. Started from Sahalie with Seth, and found that the river crossings up in the commonwealth have not formed the best snowbridges yet. Managed to cross the creeks without getting wet and started skinning up the lower flanks of Kendall basin. Luckily two skiers had busted in a great skin track leading up to the main slidepath. We caught them just before the slidepath, Tony and Shier. They were only too happy to let us bust the trail out to the South ridge leading up to the Kendall summits. We turned back as the trees thinned out, not wanting to venture out into the main slide paths. Lap 1 - game on! Ripped all the way back down to the creeks in the commonwealth valley. With big grins on our faces, we all agreed another lap was necessary! When we toured back up to the flat area before the slide path, Seth was eyeing the timbered slope that headed up the Left side of the slide path. Maybe 500 feet of vertical, the powder was great, and we did three laps on this upper section before one more great run down to the commonwealth valley floor. A great day of skinning, 4,500' vertical, with a great group of skiers!

Dec. 11 - Mt. Rainier, Paradise

Day 4 - No Snow - Well, we are on snow in the picture, but there does not seem to be much around the Pacific Northwest. After the big rain event last week, the coverage is definitely thin. Looking for snow, we headed to the old reliable, Mt. Rainier. We found snow, but we also found ice, crust, and rocks. Pulled out the ski crampons to get up to Panorama point. Continued up to just past 7,500 feet. Snow was turning into more ice then snow at this point and we decided to call it a day and ski. The views were incredible, and made up for the lack of good snow conditions. Lets hope for more snow this weekend.

Dec 2, 2007 Snoqualmie Summit - West ski area

Day 2 - The adventure today was not in the skiing, but trying to hook up with Greg and Frank. Greg was the first to make it to Alpental. Unfortunately he high centered as soon as he pulled his Audi quatro wagon into the parking lot. On my cell phone I was in contact with Frank, still on I-5 between Olympia and Tacoma, who said it was snowing hard. I was stuck in my neighborhood. The county had not plowed the roads yet, and the snow was about 2 feet deep. I decided to take Francine to work and went around the block, hoping a few people had pushed a path out of the neighborhood. No luck, second time in ten years that I high centered the Ford Explorer driving in the neighborhood. Just as we got the car unstuck, a 4wd, lifted pick-up from the Summit Learning Center came cruising by to pick up Francine's boss. They promptly got stuck, threw on some chains, and plowed up the road. Following in their bulldozed track I actually made it out of the neighborhood and went to rescue Greg. Greg failed to mention the road to Alpental had not been plowed and it was 2 feet deep if your car veered out of the ruts. By the time I got to Greg, he had dug out and was free. We slowly worked our way back to Summit West, and hooked up with Frank. The snow at West was extremely deep and we had a hard time breaking trail, until we crossed the path of a group ahead of us. Snow was too deep and heavy to make good turns, but we did two laps and got some exercise.

Here is picture of the house when I got home, note I already snowblew last night at 11, and this morning at 8. The snow is still coming down!

Nov 24, Crystal Mt. - Campbell Basin

First day of the new Season! Day 1 and counting. Looking to get back on the skis, I hooked up with Greg Louie who needed a November ski day for his ski streak of skiing every month of the year. It wasn't the best forecast, and Greg suggested going to Crystal. He thought the drive would be easier than the standby Paradise. We parked in the parking lot which was covered in a thin layer of ice and snow. Greg suggested we could start right at the car. Since I was feeling protective of my freshly reglued skins I opted to walk up the base chair lift to put on my skis. Coverage was thin, but there was enough to start at the base and head up towards Campbell Basin where we were able to find at least a foot of snow covering the smooth slopes. Thanks to a temperature inversion I was skiing at 7,000 feet in my T-shirt while at Snoqualmie Pass it was in the 20's all day. Turned out to be a pretty decent first day. Hopefully we will get a good dump soon and get the ski areas running.

September 13, Park City

Well the day after the accident, the rest of the crew did Park City resort's chairlift. The trails were excellent, but the chair was awfully slow. Day 5 they did the Mid-Mt. trail riding from Deer Valley out to past The Canyons. Day 6, I made a morning trip to the hospital then made it out for a ride with Mike. Chris shuttled us halfway up Deer Valley and we caught the downhill trail NCS back down. Then we rode Outlook to Spin Cycle, Valley trail and then some. A great ride and I even think Mike was starting to get tired. Today was our last day of riding. Tomorrow we spring Francine from the hospital, put her on a plane, then Mike and I make the 12 hour drive home.

Mike rides the "Barney Rubble" section of the NCS downhill trail at Deer Valley.

September 11, Salt Lake University Hospital

Unfortunately at the very finish of our Wasatch Crest ride, while the boys were waiting at the car, Francine decided to get stung by a bee. Then during a panic stop she put her foot down too early and drove her femur into her tibia, cracking the top of her tibia. The first person to help was an ER doctor, and he was kind enough to drive us to the closest emergency room. That afternoon they cut off Francine's favorite bike shorts, then wheeled her into the operating room to straighten out her leg. The first night they installed an external fixation device. They drilled holes into her femur and shin bone then screwed in long posts that protruded from her leg. These post were connected by square carbon fiber rods that immobilized her leg. The next morning Dr. Kubiak removed the external fixation device and proceeded to install 7 screws and two metal plates to hold the top of her tibia back together.

September 10, Park City

I went to Park City last year, and unfortunately got rained out. The small taste we had last September, convinced us that we should try again for this year. We got a cheap condo in the center of Park City and invited Chris, Corinne, and Mike U. on our adventure. Day one, we tried a new area, Glenwild. Although we enjoyed the area it did not have the trees or great soil like most of the rest of the Park City rides. Day 2 was Deer Valley chair lift assited Mt. biking. Had a great variety of excellent trails! Day 3 was the big ride, we shuttled a car down to Salt Lake City, then started our ride from Park City, over the Wasatch crest and then a 5,000 foot descent to Salt Lake. 31 miles, almost entirely on singletrack.

The crew on top of Wasatch crest.

Francine
Chris and Corinne enjoy the views, Solitude and Brighton ski areas behind them.
Rattlesnake on the trail
Mike